The UK death metal scene is arguably the best it’s ever been right now, with so many bands capturing the genre’s classic sound and others taking the it further and to new places, and Celestial Sanctuary are amongst the leaders of the pack. Forming in 2019 and taking just two years to release their first album Soul Diminished in 2021, that effort going on to appear on many end-of-year lists, the anticipation for its follow up was high, and the four-piece here have managed to strike gold again; with its combination of pummeling riffs, huge hooks and a brutal vocal attack, there’s plenty here to appease the death metal fans of old as well as bring in a new group of fans with its added fervor and instantaneous nature.

‘Glutted with Chunder’, one of the standout tracks from the record, exemplifies Celestial Sanctuary’s sound and defines why the LP has received such a passionate response since its release last month. With the imagery almost as intense as the song itself – featuring the band playing in a rehearsal space and giving a hint into the frenzied atmosphere at their live shows – it shows a group aiming for the big leagues and eyeing up much bigger stages in the not-too-distant future. We spoke with Tom Cronin, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, about everything going on in their world right now.

Insatiable Thirst for Torment has been out a month now – what’s the reaction been like from the fans and how has it compared to your expectations?

Honestly the reaction has astounded us. Y’know – we put a tonne of work into it and you can be as confident as you like in your work; but ultimately it’s up to the universe how shit like this is received, so when we got those first reactions back, to say it was a relief people were enjoying it would be an understatement. In terms of compared to expectations – our way of working is to just make the best shit we can and expect nothing in return. If you start expecting stuff then you open yourself up to a world of shit.

What did you want people to take away from the album as a listener?

A quenched thirst for DEATH, Pure fucking joy and chronic neck problems.

You’ve recently been on tour with bands like Frozen Soul, Obituary and Undeath – a nice mix of death metal veterans and the exciting new breed. How have those tours shows been and what’s the reaction to your set been like?

Mind blowing – back to expectations…. Every show we play, we play it as if no one knows who the fuck we are…. With no expectations. So we go out and do what we do and try win em over. We’re a newer band and it’s still so sick there’s people coming to shows in a place like London where we cut our teeth, played our own sold out shows and have a tonne of mates; that have no idea who we are – and they’ll come over and have a chat at the merch table after for a chat and to tell us how much they enjoyed it. And I love it. I always will love that!

The tours and shows themselves… incredible. It makes a world of difference when the bands you’re playing with are just cool people and it feels like every run of shows we play we come away with new mates. It’s also so exciting to see death metal in such a healthy place all over the U.K. the fact these bands can play a Sunday night in the middle of nowhere and pack it out is so, so sick.

How does it feel to be a part of the acts breaking through in the impressive and rapidly excelling UK scene of death metal, and also to be a part of the superb Church Road Records roster?

It’s an honour to be on the front lines with bands we’re big fans of. Coffin Mulch… Brain Bath…. mutagenic Host… Vacuous… Vaticinal Rites to name a few specifically in the death metal scene. And of course the Church Road roster feels like the breeding ground for underground metal in the U.K. in general and it’s sick as fuck to be a part of that. Especially as it means we get thrown on bills with many of these bands – as a lifelong fan of kick ass shit first and foremost, that’s probably one of the coolest things about all of this. Getting to play with killer bands and watch them smash it.

How did the writing and recording of Insatiable Thirst for Torment differ from that of your debut, Soul Diminished. What have you learnt as a band since then?

It was a lot more of a considered approach. First time around it was really about not giving too much of a shit. simply letting the filth ooze out and committing it to record. And don’t get me wrong I love that approach and we’ll do that again I’m sure. But it felt good spending the time and making the sickest thing we possibly could in that moment. Y’know… Thinking ‘how can this bit hit 5% harder. How can this vocal be 7.5% sicker?’ – getting those brutal marginal gains where we can. And we’ve learned you can never be too cool push yourself at your instrument or songwriting. That is the crux of it all. We can only make the best thing we can.

On the album, you’ve managed to really craft massive hooks to go along with the huge riffs and great, textured dual vocal approach. Was it a conscious decision to really craft a song rather than just try to be as heavy as possible?

100% – and that was one of the main things missing from the first album. I ain’t gona beat around the bush… It’s easy to write heavy for the sake of heavy. And some of the coolest stuff around is exactly that.
But to keep people engaged for 40 or so mins and fuck em up for the entirety? That’s the challenge and that was our mission from the outset.

On ‘Glutted with Chunder’, what was the inspiration to make a video for this particular song? Where does the track fit in the realm of your other material and in the live setting?

My answer here is gonna be pretty symbiotic to your question… we did it for this one because it’s one of the songs we’ve been playing from INSATIABLE THIRST FOR TORMENT since we toured with Undeath at the start of the year, so we’ve all got a connection to this song and have enjoyed slotting it into the set and playing it for the maniacs all over the U.K. and in terms of slotting into other material, I feel like this is the first song we wrote that really leans into a more traditional song structure with big hooks that dig right into your skull. It’s a cliche – but writing a song, effectively like that is way harder than chucking a bunch of riffs into a salad. Don’t get me wrong… riff salad… fucking delicious. But I think this song specifically demonstrates our growth as a band and our eagerness to get out there and fuck everyone up.

Insatiable Thirst for Torment is out now via Church Road Records